I quit my job to go full time Indie

[theweirdn8]

Hello Gamers,

 

After seeing so many other posts similar to this I thought I should make my own thread about it. 

 

Yesterday I quit my job to go full time indie. Currently, my 1st game is being finished and I'm quite excited. 

 

I wrote a blog post here.

 

Please read it and let me know what you think.

 

I look for your wisdom and support in this huge life endeavor.

 

I'm actively working hard to make good games for the GCW-Zero handheld system and I thought it would be great to include the OpenPandora into my porting capabilities. I was thinking I can host an OpenPandora specific crowd-funding for every game I intend to port over to the system. Do you think $3 for a game on the OpenPandora is too much?

 

[elwing]

Congratulation! and good luck!

 

[Eddie]

Sometimes you just got to go for it

 

[commander-beef]

I dont think GCW or OP is a good start to earn some money on indie dev... Better start with ios + android. 

"Do you think $3 for a game on the OpenPandora is too much?"

Carefull, you might be surprised, in negative way, ofc

Some hints here: 

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/13451-classic-apogee-games-full-versions/page-9#entry295063

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/13451-classic-apogee-games-full-versions/page-9#entry295118

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/13451-classic-apogee-games-full-versions/page-9#entry295148

 

[ekianjo]

Yeah, to make money and work full time on something you need mass market to be able to secure ongoing revenues. It's fine to port on Pandora as well but your target market should be at least something bigger (mobiles phones or desktop)

 

[DaMummy]

Don't quit your day job, especially for your first game :/

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Yeah i would wait till some solid money is rolling in before quitting my day job.


I am making an indie game atm.


Its a commercial game for pc etc but will be free on pandora.


Imo there is no money to be made on the pandora or gcw zero.

 

[Fzero]

Hope it works out good for you and you earn your crust making games

 

[crow_riot]

Well, good luck!

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Well, if the game is good and run well on the pandora, I have no problem paying for it to play on my Pandora with nice physical controls than on my phone/tablet/etc.  The problem here is that there are not too many game developers have the Pandora in mind when developing games.  The stuff on the repo, while good, are just rehashes of old games which are mostly ported, and porters can't legally charge for it.  I don't know how to make it work, but what we (actually OPT) need is somehow attract more devs or convince them that when developing a game for Android/iOs, they should also think about the Pandora and charge the same price for it on the Pandora.  This way the Pandora is an extra income.  This way, dev can make money as well as expanding the software library of the Pandora and prolong it's life... 

 

[WizardStan]

This is going to be a very scary time for you. It takes proverbial balls to do this and I sincerely wish you the best.

I will mimic everyone else on this though: Pandora should not be considered a source of income. Even if your game was beyond awesome and you sold every single user a copy of for $3 that's still only $15000, barely enough for a person to survive on, and the truth is you'd probably only see sales in the dozens at most. The GCW is only slightly better in this regard, I understand.

Target desktops, target Android, target iOS; you've taken a huge risk and you need to ensure that risk pays off. If you do things right, the GCW and Pandora should be an easy port for a couple extra bucks, and you can probably ask people for help (possibly even for free) getting it ported.

 

[Mr_Loon]

Good luck, hope it all goes well for you. I must admit I don't really see how you could make a living selling software for Pandora & gcwzero.


+1 for looking into android + Apple + pc as your main source of revenue.

 

[jottt]

@shenmue the issue with "making money" on the pandora is simply the userbase. Even if you have a game that is perfect in every aspect and a "huge" success and you manage to sell it to 10% of all Pandora owners (which is unthinkably high) for US$ 5 you'll still end up with around US$ 5000 (this is brutto!) wich is probably not even the time spend coding, let alone all the small tasks around.

This seems a lot when you get it "on top" for a hobby, but it's nothing for a job of a selfemployed programmer (at least in Germany). And you still have a high risk your game might fail that you carry all on your own.

Sooo: Happy to get quality commercial games on the Pandora and I happily spend something for it (if I like the game). But don't get the impression that this money will be more than a nice hot cup of premium chocolate that makes the cold days cozy But others said that first....

 

[commander-beef]

In short:

no love from OP / GCW to Indie devs = no love from indie devs to OP/GCW

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

How so?  As a user, I want to see the software available first.  If the software is not there how do I know if it' any good to begin with. 

Edit:  In my post, I didn't say that the Pandora is the only platform that devs will develop games for.  I said devs just need to keep the Pandora in mind in addition to their main platforms like iOS and Android as Pandora is just an extra source of income (at first anyway since you'd never know how big it's going to grow).  Like WizardStan said, porting to the Pandora should be an easy port.  Also if more good games are on the Pandora, more gamers/users will flock to it and you would have this snowball effect.

 

[theweirdn8]

Thanks for the support everyone.

Also, the job is already quit so it is time to move onward.

 

[sebt3]

How so?  As a user, I want to see the software available first.  If the software is not there how do I know if it' any good to begin with.

While on any plateform reaching a 10% mark is not even possible C.B. Expect to sell any indie works to 100% of the pandora users.This discussion have gone again and again. Leave that alone

 

[commander-beef]

How so?  As a user, I want to see the software available first.  If the software is not there how do I know if it' any good to begin with. 

I mean theres no good ground for indie deving here. The userbase isnt big, many from users dont want to support indie dev in monetary way [vide KAMI RETRO, which was big succes on mobiles, and here it isnt, even if it is well coded and nice for eye ]

 

[sebt3]

I mean theres no good ground for indie deving here. The userbase isnt big, many from users dont want to support indie dev in monetary way [vide KAMI RETRO, which was big succes on mobiles, and here it isnt, even if it is well coded and nice for eye ]

Sure. Am I free to not like that game ? Am I free to not willing to "inest" money in a game I dont want to play ? (same for pollo pollo)It's not a matter of love but a matter of taste.

EDIT: @theweirdn8 good luck and enjoy the way. But please please target a wider audiance than here

 

[TrashyMG]

How so?  As a user, I want to see the software available first.  If the software is not there how do I know if it' any good to begin with. 

I mean theres no good ground for indie deving here. The userbase isnt big, many from users dont want to support indie dev in monetary way [vide KAMI RETRO, which was big succes on mobiles, and here it isnt, even if it is well coded and nice for eye ]

To be fair, Kami Retro isn't my type of game.. I did purchase it to support a developer that wanted to develop for the Pandora.. but I wouldn't of bought it in the first place otherwise.


Edit: It hit 128 downloads.. say most of those were first time downloads. that isn't too bad how small the community is.